A flock of tweets responding to the post said things like “way overdue” and “absolutely it’s time” and “yes, please.” Andrew Celentano (@taxonophilia) of the Melrose Asset Group business-consulting firm in Winchester, Mass., applauded the idea of a four-day workweek, tweeting that “it would help address unemployment and people could spend more time participating in their communities.”

Now I’d like to offer advice on how you can get a four-day workweek — either by talking to your current boss or by finding a firm or nonprofit that embraces the concept.

The tips come from workflex experts I interviewed and from my conversation with Jason Fried, the innovative founder and CEO of the Chicago software firm 37signals, which lets its employees who’ve been there at least a year work day-day, 32-hour weeks from May through October. (“In a colder climate, there’s not much to do on a three-day weekend during the winter,” Fried says.)

Getting a 4-Day Week Where You Work

Convincing your boss to let you work four, not five days, can be tricky — especially if no one else there is doing it.

Managers typically don’t like to make special arrangements for employees, because doing so adds to their … well, management duties. Some instinctively go into “well, if I do it for you, I have to do it for everyone” mode. Then there’s the fear that if you’ll be working fewer than five days a week, you won’t get your job done (even if you’ll be working four 10-hour days and putting in 40 hours a week).

That said, staffers in their 50s and 60s are frequently well-positioned to arrange four-day weeks, says Pat Katepoo, the Kaneohe, Hawaii-based head of Work Options, a firm that helps employees negotiate flexible schedules.

“They often have more tenure at their jobs than younger employees, so there’s a built-in trust level with their managers,” she says.